Rishi’s story: An Imperial education for all

Your generous support ensures Rishi can pursue his passion for engineering and engage in extracurricular activities at Imperial.

Coming from a low-income single-parent household, Rishi almost delayed going to university due to financial worries. Without the support of the Imperial Bursary, studying Design Engineering at Imperial would be an opportunity that he would have struggled to accept.

Before university, Rishi used to live at home with his mum and his younger sister. “With the help of the bursary, I was able to have more freedom with my time by living in a university accommodation. I’m also able to afford a travelcard, so I can travel home and help my family out from time to time.”

Living in student accommodation in North Acton during his first year enriched Rishi’s social life, putting him at the heart of a lively community and encouraging him to get involved in student societies and meant he could attend engineering-related exhibitions, which further enhanced his university experience.

“Had I not received any monetary support, I would have to live far from campus and the cost of travelling would have made it difficult to attend in-person lectures and tutorials, which would have affected my grades.”

Rishi particularly enjoys design projects, which allows him to combine his passion for design engineering with an interest in entrepreneurship. “My user-centered design project focused on how we can help children build convenient and consistent healthy eating habits. I observed user behaviour through the children’s food diaries and found it interesting to see how different individuals perceive foods is affected by their parents’ opinions, preferences, and background.”

In the future, Rishi hopes to work within the culinary technology or audio technology industries, particularly as a product manager who oversees design and engineering work.

About the Imperial Bursary Fund

The Imperial Bursary supports home undergraduate students from financially disadvantaged backgrounds with up to £5,000 per year for the entire duration of their course. Students do not have to pay it back and can use the bursary to assist with their living expenses in London.